QCRI
Screenshots of BrailleEasy
BrailleEasy, a one-handed Braille app developed by researchers in Qatar, has officially launched on Apple’s App Store.
Originally made available last year via direct download, the bilingual app was developed by researchers Barbara Šepič and Abdurrahman Ghanem from Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI) under the supervision of Dr. Stephan Vogel, QCRI’s Arabic Language Technologies Research Director.
Members of the local visually impaired community also collaborated on the app and actively participated in testing it, including volunteers from the Qatar Social and Cultural Center for Blind, Al Noor Institute for the Blind, and MADA (Qatar Assistive Technology Center).
One-handed use
Unlike most braille keyboard apps, BrailleEasy allows users to type using only one hand,through the use of gestures.
The app can be used in English or Arabic, for both left- and right-handed brailling and includes a keyboard that can be used for a variety of purposes, such as accessing the web or email.
Dr. Vogel told Doha News that BrailleEasy also serves an instructive role:
“The app has a tutorial mode for the user to learn Braille, plus an authoring mode for teachers and instructors to design lessons which are aligned to their other teaching material.”
The developers say the BrailleEasy will be open sourced to allow others to improve it and adapt it to other languages.
Thoughts?
(The post Innovative Qatar-made braille keyboard launches in app store is from Doha News.)